Margaret's story

Margaret Chan has been with Altis Consulting NZ for 16 years – and we know anyone who stays that long at one company has a good news story behind them. From a consultant in her early 20s to now a Client Executive, she has been supported and developed through her career here.

Finding adventure in the workplace

I am adventurous and love to try new things – and I have definitely been able to find adventure in my career. After graduating from Auckland University in New Zealand, I joined Middlemore Hospital as a Decision Support Analyst and then moved over to Altis to work in data warehousing. After a few years, I moved to the UK for an overseas adventure while still building my data warehousing skills. When I returned to New Zealand, I re-joined Altis, knowing the opportunities that awaited me here and the solid culture that I had been unable to find anywhere else.

I knew I made the right decision joining Altis when I met our founders, Hyun and Gavin.

Hyun was a consultant herself. The way she worked and presented herself gave me the first impression of what a successful consultant looks like. I was also mentored by a female senior consultant at the time. Again, women in IT were not that common back in the day. The fact that there were many in Altis gave me the confidence that I had made the right decision.”

Succeeding as a woman in consulting

One of the earliest challenges I faced in my career was overcoming stereotypes.

As a woman, short and Asian in IT, I found myself having to prove myself more before I was trusted to be able to do my job in the early days of my career. Also, being assumed as a non-technical person when I walked into a room was also quite common, with people saying, ‘You must be the business analyst or personal assistant’.

With fully awareness, I am committed as a leader to lead with competence and consistency to break any possible stereotypes. 

One of my proudest career moments have been being promoted to Principal Consultant.  “I finally made it”.  I hope that I have made all my role models (Susan McNally, Mythili Baker, Hyun) proud and have uphold the values that they have instilled in me. It was not necessarily any big quotes but simply the way they conduct themselves, the pursuit of excellence, the professionalism, and especially how they treat people, always with kindness and respect in all situations.  Following a very challenging project early in my career, I’m glad I persevered, all that has followed is success!

In my role as Client Executive, I now take on a more advisory role, helping organisations use data as a strategic asset, providing guidance on data strategy, governance, platform, and analytic use cases.  I also work with our wider sales team to identify new opportunities where Altis can help businesses transform their data. I work across different industries, bridging the gap between technical experts (such as data scientists and data engineers) and operational and functional experts (senior leaders, frontline managers, finance, HR, sales, marketing).

Continually growing in your career

I enjoy the challenge of problem solving and trying new things, and I definitely feel that I bring that tenacity to work.

I take advantage of the personal coaching Altis offers, where I can share my experiences and challenges, and get support in working through setbacks – which are an inevitable part of any career.

I’m doing what I always wanted to do in my career, here are a few of my key career tips:

• Have principles. “Be just, be merciful and be courageous in life.”
• Build relationships. “Spend more time with people, communication is key.”
• Ask for help. “As a young consultant, I was afraid to ask for help and I remember spending hours hiding in the office trying to get things to work. There is a balance between trying things out yourself and asking for help.”
• Use your voice. “Don’t be afraid to speak up, your ideas and values matter.”

One of my goals now is to support and mentor younger consultants in their growth to become the best consultants they can be.